Policies communicate an organization’s values and philosophy and establish what is appropriate, inappropriate or legal behavior for employees. They also support consistency, communication, and compliance.
Policy-making is complex and involves a variety of factors, actors and stages. While the policy process is influenced by political considerations like public opinion and party ideology, economic elements such as growth and market dynamics, environmental concerns and resource availability, and other issues of importance to society, policy solutions are also shaped by specific expertise in particular fields and sectors. Policy-making is a dynamic, iterative process that often requires changes to address new circumstances and situations.
A key characteristic of policy-making is that a wide range of decisions are made in a very short timeframe, often with limited resources and under great pressure. These decision-making conditions are accentuated by the need to balance conflicting objectives and interests. Consequently, the normal internal working practices, governed by habit, convention and assumptions (as much as formally determined procedures) within any ministry, department or agency will determine to a significant extent how information – including research knowledge – gets into the policy-making process.
A clear and consistent policy management system helps ensure that all employees have access to the latest policies, regardless of their location or role. PowerDMS is a fully-integrated, powerful policy management solution that simplifies how companies create, communicate, distribute and track their policies.